Huda Kattan on the Power of Being Yourself | BoF VOICES

Huda Kattan.

I came across this podcast on BoF which was on the topic of ' the power to being yourself'.  I decided to watch it as I feel this topic is something most people struggle with and is definitely something I struggle with myself. I feel that especially in a creative industry, it's a positive thing to be different and original from the crowd. However, in society you're often looked at as weird and many people are scared of not being accepted. Huda Kattan explains her personal story of this exact case.

Huda Kattan is an Iraqi-American makeup artist, beauty blogger and entrepreneur. She is also the CEO of the cosmetic line Huda Beauty. Throughout her time at school, Huda explained a lot of people called her different and weird. She explained many students couldn't even pronounce her name properly. She was unsure of the reasoning that made her appear so weird other than maybe the fact of her culture. She was tired of not fitting in so she changed her name to Heidi ( her middle name) at an attempt to blend in which worked. She spent many years pretending to be like everyone else that she dropped what she loved (art) and studied maths instead. when it came to after graduation, she was fired from her first job being told that she didn't fit the part. She realised that she couldn't seem to fit in anywhere but felt lost and tired of pretending. She started to be herself and do the things she loved. From this, she became very successful and ' limitless'. In the end, she wasn't viewed as being weird. Instead she became an influencer with great following on all social media platforms with a successful makeup brand that became the fastest growing beauty company in the world. Huda explained that her brand "didn't blossom it boomed" and described herself of feeling 'free'.

Listening to this podcast and hearing Huda's story has left me feeling really inspired. It has influenced me to work on being myself, stepping out of my comfort zone and accepting my own inner genius. I also hope its inspired you too.

Here are a few things Huda said throughout her story that was memorable and encouraging:

 " the reality is, you always become your environment but what happens when your environment takes over and you forget who you really are."

" Being different changes the norm."

"Society is pushed to revolutionise and that's how it flourishes."

"Anyone who had a profound impact on the word had to be some content of weird."

"What if we didn't accept our inner weirdo. What if Einstein kept his thoughts to himself? and What if Micheal Jackson danced like everyone else?  Being different is your genius."